A decade of research on cognitive instruction has shown that training which is based on a thorough understanding of task requirements can raise performance of the mentally retarded to levels that could never be achieved without training. Recently, investigators have shifted their training from subordinate skills required for a particular task's performance to superordinate skills that invoke and organize subordinate processes. The reasons for this change are, first, retarded persons often possess but fail to use the subordinate processes necessary for good performance, and second, the instruction used to induce good performance is simple, yet the resulting performance gains are swift and dramatic. The interpretation of these findings is that instruction simply decided for the child which task-specific processes to use. Despite numerous reports of improvements in the task-specific performance of mentally retarded persons, there have been few reports of transfer of trained skills to related tasks. In those few instances where transfer has occurred, superordinate, as well as subordinate, processes have been trained. The purpose of our work is to test the proposition that intellectual development in general and normal/retarded differences in particular are more centrally related to the superordinate processes responsible for designing problem-solving strategies than to the subordinate mechanisms from which the strategies are composed. To this end, we have constructed graded instructional sequences for each of five tasks (circular recall, multiple associates, balance beam, inclined plane, series completion). Our hypothesis is that children who are instructed in the use of superordinate processes will need less complete task-specific training than those who are not given superordinate instruction. We also hope to demonstrate that children who show independent evidence of the use of superordinate skills are adjudged to be more intelligent on standardized intelligence tests and require less complete task-specific instruction (to achieve high levels of proficiency) than children who show less use of superordinate processes. Finally, we hope to develop procedures that can be used by teachers to inculcate self-management skills in the classroom.